Real Madrid-Liverpool Champions League Final climbs to over 3 million viewers

In the last UEFA Champions League Final broadcast by both FOX Sports and ESPN, the 2017/18 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool averaged 3.0 million viewers in the United States.

While the broadcast on the over-the-air FOX network averaged 2,004,000 million viewers, the Real Madrid-Liverpool game in Spanish-language on ESPN Deportes averaged 1,020,000 million for a combined total of 3,024,000 viewers overall.

In the week building up to the final, ESPN Deportes had their entire team of commentators and staff in Ukraine. Both ESPN Deportes and ESPN had daily reports and shows focusing on all of the major storylines. Meanwhile, FOX Sports sent reporter Keith Costigan to Ukraine but kept Stu Holden and John Strong in a studio in the United States to call the game off a monitor.

The 3.0 million viewing figure for the UEFA Champions League makes it the most-watched soccer game on US television during May 14-28.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

4 Comments

RobertoJune 4, 2018

Think he might mean Billion, most games on sky are watched by more than 3 million, very poor fact checking.

Roberto. The article is about viewing figures in the USA only. This compares with 2017 stanley cup finals average of 4.7 mio. NBA finals of 29 mio, World Series of 18 mio. Remembering that the US games at the 2014 word cup were drawing over 30 mio in US TV viewership.